The Miles Between (7 page)

Seth spots a brook running close to the road and pulls over. He says he thinks Lucky may need a drink and that this would also be a good time for Lucky to do his duty before he unloads in the front seat. Not knowing the bathroom habits of lambs, we all agree, but I think it will be interesting to see just how Seth plans to coax Lucky to take care of his business.

Seth and Aidan walk to a nearby meadow with Lucky while Mira and I wait beside the car. I note Seth's long slow strides next to Aidan's rapid calculated ones. They
are different in every way, from Seth's unkempt blond hair to Aidan's carefully parted and greased brown hair. Seth sets Lucky down, and even from a distance, I can see Lucky's stubby tail wag like he is enormously excited about the patch of white clover surrounding him. Our little lamb seems to be a gourmet.

Mira leans back against the car and folds her arms. “Don't you think he's handsome?”

“Seth?”

“No! Aidan, of course! He likes me, you know?” She smiles, her gaze following Aidan's steps across the meadow. Mira's affection for him has always been quite apparent. She follows him around like a lost puppy, practically nibbling on his heels like they are liver treats, but I have never seen anything except polite tolerance from Aidan in return.

“Has he told you?” I ask, thinking it might be kinder to bring her back to reality than allow her to embarrass herself further.

“No, silly. Some things you just know.”

I feel like I am three feet tall and I have just been soundly patted on the head. Before I can respond, she skips away from the car calling after Aidan, and then a few yards away turns back to me and says, “You really need to pay
attention more, Des!” She skitters away, not waiting for my reply, which is already tripping over itself in my head.

Me? The Grand Observer? She is telling
me
to be more observant? Who does she think she's talking to? I stomp forward a few feet and stop. Let her go! Let her embarrass herself with Aidan! It will serve her right.

As soon as she approaches Seth and Aidan, I see a few words exchanged and Seth leaves them, walking back down the path toward me.

He hops over the brook and dumps an armful of clover and grass onto the floor of the car. It seems we have given up all semblance of decorum in the name of Lucky. “Mira said you wanted me?”

I roll my eyes. “I wanted you? That's what she said? Aidan will see right through that one.”

“Oh.” Seth nods and smiles. “I get it. I thought I saw some sparks.”

I shrug. “From Mira, anyway.”

“No, from Aidan too.”

I turn sharply. “What? Deadpan Aidan? I don't think so!”

“That's right, deadpan Aidan. I noticed he gets all googly-eyed every time he says her name, and he seems to say it a lot. At least three times just now in the meadow.”

“You're delusional.” I pull on the door handle to get back in. “If there were sparks,
I
would have seen them.”

Seth puts his hand out and leans on the door so I can't open it. “Maybe you don't see as much as you think you do.”

I let go of the handle, my arms and legs suddenly feeling like they have sprouted extra angles that won't fold properly. Being someone different, even for one day, is unnerving. If I were still at Hedgebrook, following the routine, I wouldn't be in a conversation like this, so close to Seth I could spit on him without trying. Maybe I already have? He has no proper sense of personal space. I shift my weight and fold my arms, being careful not to brush his chest in the process. Why is he so close? A flash of heat swirls in my belly, and my breath shudders as I inhale.

“Maybe,” I say.

Seth looks at me for a moment longer without blinking and then drops his hand. He steps away from the car and walks to the edge of the brook, sitting down on a lichen-splotched rock. He rests his hands on his thighs, his knees, and then back to his thighs. It seems my awkwardness is contagious. “Aidan told me about your aunt. Her tires, that is. Bad break.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Do you mind if I ask . . . what it is about this day? He said it was like you were expecting the news.”

I hear the carefulness in Seth's voice. Like I am fragile. I am not. If I were I would have fractured into a thousand pieces long ago. Maybe I have cracked a bit, but then, so has the Parthenon. “I wasn't expecting it. It was just confirmation that some days are destined to go badly.”

“Is your aunt in Langdon?” he asks. “Is that why we're going there?”

“No, she's . . . she's in Chatsworth to the south. About six hours. I didn't think I could coax you all that far, not to mention we would have had to pass through Hedgebrook to get there.”

He nods. “So there's nothing special about Langdon?”

Does he know something? I walk closer, eyeing another nearby rock, and take a seat there. “No. Why?”

“You knew exactly how many miles away it was. It's an odd thing to know, especially for someone who doesn't drive.”

“Langdon's just a town. Like any other. And the closest one for us to have a day out.”

“Our fair day,” he says, like he is clarifying my words.

“That's right.”

“I have to confess,” he says. “When you came and got
me this morning, I was fried and thinking of ways to leave Hedgebrook, at least for a little while. Your timing was surprising.”

“
Or
a convenient coincidence. You obviously haven't been paying attention.”

I hear the tone in my voice, and I see Seth look away. Does he feel like he has just been soundly patted on the head? It wasn't my intention, but it seems to be the result nonetheless. I search for something to say to diminish my last words. It is clear that I am not good at small talk.

“It was more than your scruffy hair,” I blurt out.

His gaze darts back toward me. “What?”

He heard me. Why must I repeat it? “It was more than your uncombed hair that I noticed.”

“Like?” I hear the caution in his voice.

“On your first day, I noticed how you moved around in a room. Chemistry. The library. The dining hall. Everywhere. The way you talked. There were no strangers for you, even when that's exactly what everyone was.”

“And that surprised you?”

“Not surprised. I didn't even know you. It just stood out to me, and I found it curious that on your first day you were comfortable striking up conversations with people you had never met. Anyone and everyone.”

“Is that how I looked? Comfortable?” He smiles and shakes his head. “I was nervous. I always am. But I've learned to live with that.”

“Live with it? What does that mean?”

He shifts on his rock so he is facing me straight on. “I move a lot because of my father's job. I've lived all over the world, but I've never lived anywhere more than a year, so I can't waste a lot of time trying to get to know people. I have to jump right in; otherwise, I would never make a single friend before it was time for me to move again.”

Never more than a year? How is that possible? He has moved more than I have.

“How long will you be at Hedgebrook?” I ask.

He grins. “After today, who knows? But technically I'll be here until I graduate. My parents are in Singapore for my dad's new job, but with college looming, they didn't think my mom should tutor me anymore. I'm ahead in all my subjects, but I need some college prep, and they thought the consistency of a couple of years at the same place would be best for me. Collegewise, that is.”

“Do you miss them?”

He stands and wipes his hands on his pants and finally nods. “Yeah.”

In all the times I watched Seth at a distance, I never
would have guessed he was nervous. I never would have guessed that he missed anyone. I never would have guessed that he had slept in more beds than me. I never would have guessed that we had anything in common at all.

I see Mira and Aidan approaching and I stand. Seth swings around and sees them too.

They hop the brook, Lucky in Mira's arms, and she sets him on the ground between us. He immediately occupies himself with a golden dandelion.

“Lucky took care of his business!” Mira proudly announces.

“You won't believe this,” Aidan says, shaking his head.

“He's brilliant,” Mira continues. “I said to him, Lucky, my man, we have places to go and people to see, and you need to stop eating and take care of your business. That's what I said, just like that, and then I pointed at the ground, and right then—”

“He did. He took care of business, all right,” Aidan finishes. “I had to jump out of the way.”

Mira beams. “What do you think of that!”

I shake my head. “Some people might choose to call it impeccable timing.”

“I'd call it
Lucky
timing, Mira,” Aidan says.

Mira giggles.

And I don't know if it is the first time it has happened, or if it is simply the first time I have noticed, but yes, there was a definite googly aspect to Aidan's eyes when he said Mira's name.

A gust of wind rustles, and I feel a chill on my neck. “It's time to go,” I say, and we all pile into the car. Lucky included.

 

 

 

I
HAD WANTED A SISTER
, but when I found out it was a boy, I was happy soon enough. For a six-year-old, a baby was a baby, and Mother had already told me I could help push the pram. A boy could be paraded just as nicely as a girl. And Father was quick to point out the advantages, that a brother wouldn't borrow my clothes or bother my treasured Madame Alexander dolls. The one thing I didn't have was patience, which is not surprising for a six-year-old.

“Hold your hand still, Destiny. You must be patient,” Mother told me. I held my hand on her growing tummy. “Timing is everything. We have to wait for the baby to move.” She nudged the side of her belly, perhaps impatient herself. And then I felt it. The swipe of a hand, or a
foot, or an elbow, I didn't know, but it was my brother reaching out and touching my fingertips. I was certain. I looked at my mother's eyes. For both of us it was a moment of magic. And timing. Timing is everything.

How was I to know that moment of magic was the beginning of me being edged out of their lives?

 

 

 

“D
ID YOU SEE THAT?
Twenty-two miles to Langdon.” Mira leans forward for emphasis. “And we still haven't heard
your
secrets.”

If nothing else, Mira is persistent. I knew she wouldn't forget. Our morning routine at Hedgebrook is evidence of that, and even as much as I had resisted her intrusion at the beginning, I have to admit, Mira had a way of making me a part of her day.

“Tell yours, Seth,” I say.

“I'm driving.”

“Come on, Des,” Mira pleads.

I sigh and then flip around in my seat to face her. “All right. But no questions. Promise?”

She nods vigorously. Aidan shrugs.

I have something that will satisfy Mira, or it will at least keep her occupied until we reach Langdon and I am no longer confined to the same ten square feet of space. “Ready?”

“
Yes
,” Aidan and Seth both say impatiently. Mira is respectfully quiet.

“No one knows this, and you mustn't tell anyone, but I am the last descendant of William Shakespeare.”

Mira gasps on cue. This is going to be so easy. I decide I may as well make it worth it.

“That's not all,” I add. “His unpublished plays have been secretly handed down from one generation to the next, and now I am in possession of the unpublished sequel to
Romeo and Juliet.
” I lean close to Mira. “They both live,” I whisper.

“Now wait a minute—”

Mira claps her hands. “I knew it! It was just so unfair the way it ended. This is amazing, Des! What did—”

“Shh! What did I say? No questions!”

She motions like she is pulling a zipper across her mouth. “I promise.”

Aidan groans. “Come on, Mira. You pull straight A's in English Lit and you're going to buy that?”

Her brow wrinkles. “Seth? Do you?”

“No comment.”

Which of course is not only a comment but an entire rebuttal.

Mira turns back to me. “
Destiny
.”

“It's true, I tell you.”

Mira leans back and frowns. “If you don't want to play the game—”

“All right,” I say. “I'll share another secret, but only as an act of good faith, mind you.”

Mira's smile returns. Again, Aidan shrugs. And though I don't see, I am sure I can sense Seth rolling his eyes. The game is for Mira.

“When I was seven I had to have a heart transplant, but there weren't any available, so they gave me the heart of a baboon.”

Seth taps on the horn. “Now
that
I believe.”

“To this day, I eat bananas without removing the peel.”

In spite of himself, Aidan smiles.

Mira smiles too and shakes her head. “Will you ever tell the truth, Des?”

Will I ever tell the truth?

Will I? I don't know.

I look up and see Seth studying my face. He looks away. “I'll go,” he volunteers unexpectedly. What did he see when he looked at me?

“Go,” Mira says hurriedly, like she too is eager to forget my baboon heart.

“Okay, it isn't as amazing as a webbed toe, or flunking kindergarten,
or
being related to Shakespeare—I don't have a lot of secrets. But this is something most people don't know about me. I speak four languages and have lived in eleven different countries, some more than once.”

Aidan snorts. “That doesn't sound like a secret to me. More like bragging.” He reaches over the seat and pats Lucky. “Were your parents on the
lamb
?” he asks, obviously looking for something a little more scandalous.